Possession

As the final day of rememberance arrived, we all got ready to head over to one of my dad's cousins house. Upon arrival, all my grandparents, great uncles and aunties were quietly chatting amongst themselves, whilst my aunties and second aunties were all cooking away, in order to provide offerings for our ancestors.

Once the food was all prepared, we all gathered in the living room and quietly listened to one of the elders pray, and give thanks. One by one, we all lit incense and placed them respectively in the little cups.

One of my great aunts then started naming all our immediate ancestors, including great uncles, great aunties, great grandfathers and mothers, and great great grand fathers and mothers, however since there were so many to name, she just generalized and named "chinese ancestors (chinese grandfather)."

All of a sudden out of no where, my aunty who is an extremely quiet person sat up and whacked the person next to her twice across the head, and pointed at my great grandmother and shouted "your an ingrateful grandchild, you can't even name your grandfather," and my great aunt's reaction was just like my reaction. We sat there paralized until we realised what was going on, and my great aunt then replied "but I did mention you, chinese ancestors". My possessed aunty continued to shout and point and then calmed down and apologized to the person she had hit and said "sorry I hit you, you aren't even related".

As quickly as my great grandfather came, he left my aunties body and my aunty leaped up from the ground and layed unconscious for a few minutes.

While all this happened, I was absolutely clueless and had no idea what was going on. One of my other great aunts told me off for not taking any photo's or videoing the situation, but at the time I had no idea what to do because I didn't want to be disrespectful.

I know it may be hard to believe, as I still don't know what or how to explain what and how it happened. But apparently possessions occur quiet often amongst my immediate relatives. My great great grandfather is Chinese, and whenever he possesses my grandmother (who doesn't speak a word of Chinese), my grandmother sits there speaking broken Khmer mixed with Chinese, whilst stroking her imaginary long beard (like old chinese men). Too many stories to write up, but I still find it extremely strange and bizarre as I don't really know what to believe.

-Allan-

Rememberance

The sound of distorted music and chants in arabic, echoed across the quiet village at sunrise, from the nearby Cham Mosque. I actually didn't mind the early wake up call, as it gave me the opportunity to catch up on writing my journal entry for the previous day. Also to get some sunrise photo's in front of my grandparents house.

At 9:00am, Vichheka and myself headed towards Wat Thmei, located about 5-10 minutes out of town. My Great Aunt and Uncle organised a bonn (celebration) event to remember relatives who have passed away, specifically my great grandparents. The remains of my great grandma are housed in a stupa or chedi around the back of the temple grounds.

Luckily we chose to leave home at 9:00 otherwise we would of had to wait an extra hour for everyone to arrive. While waiting till about 10:00am till everyone arrived, I walked around the temple compound and admired the main temple structure as it has recently been renovated and repainted. On my previous trip this same temple lacked any colour or character.

Once everyone arrived and settled down, 4 monks walked towards our great grandparents stupa and sat down and started chanting prayers and blessings. Whilst the monks were praying and chanting, everyone started providing offerings of food, drinks and money to the monks to thank them for the time and wisdom.

As the bonn drew to an end, we left for lunch at Yeay Chun-Lee's house, which was a massive beautiful villa. Vichheka and myself quickly ate and left as we were the only young people there and felt out of place.

Tomorrow will finalize the offering and rememberance bonn, which will be held at my dad's cousins house near the markets. As we left Yeay Chun-Lee's house, I quickly took another browse of Psar Kampong Cham and bought myself a few tops and formal black trousers. All up costing me $26US, I managed to bargain it down from $40, so it wasn't a bad effort.

For the rest of the day, I took it easy as it was getting a little bit warm. Will be able to go where I initially planned to go in the next few days, as soon as I get these bonn's out of the way.

-allan-

Clutter

Early in the morning my cousin Vichheka whizzed me through Kampong Cham, over the Japanese bridge (Speak Kizuna) towards the newly renovated French Watch Tower (Pom Tonlebet). Back in its day during French occupation of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos (also known as French Indochina), these watch towers were used to keep an eye on invaders. The reason for the mention in this entry is because the tower has just been recently renovated and repainted earlier this year, where as on my previous trips it was in a state of decay.

As I headed back across the bridge, I decided to pop into the local market (Psar Kampong Cham). As per usual Psar Kampong Cham and almost every other psar in Cambodia are cluttered. Whilst walking pass each of the stalls, every stall owner desperately seek out to make a sale.

After about half an hour of browsing, we returned to our grandparents home is Poum Aka. Along the way we popped into Wat Dei Dos, which housed 2 newly constructed buddha statues within the temple gardens. Within this temple compound, housed many chedi's (burial sites), one of them being my grandparents which was constructed a while ago. Some of the chedi's have seen better days, as many were destroyed in one way or another during the Khmer Rouge. After taking a few photo's we quickly jetted back to my grandparents home through the cluttered streets which were full of mini outdoor stalls selling groceries, fish and poultry.

We didnt get to rest for long, as we arrived at our grandparents home, my other cousin Bun Chhoeun arrived with his wife, and we quickly set off again to visit the 10th Century ruin of Phnom Bachey (also known as Wat Nokor), this ruin complex has an incredible atmosphere as there is a beautiful contrast between old and new. A modern temple has been constructed within the central shrine which has incredible painted bas reliefs all over the poles and roof. I've already visited this prasat in my previous trip, but decided to pay a visit because its worth the effort. We didn't stay for long as my cousin wanted to take me to the newly constructed memorial site at the base of Phnom Pros.

During the Khmer Rouge, Phnom Pros vicinity was turned into a mass grave, and till this day you can see remnants of clothing scattered across the field. The newly constructed garden, house many decently oversized buddha statues, painted in gold. At the top of Phnom Pros were a group of small monkeys sat there eagerly to accept banana's, however we decided to give this a miss as my dad on his previous trip was bitten by one of the scoundrels.

Even though I have visited these sites numerous times, I will have to revisit them once more to both record a GPS reading of the sites and also to take some family group photo's. Anyhoo it's getting late and I havent had dinner yet, so Ciao for now.

-allan-

Stares

Had an early night last night, slept at 7pm surprise, surprise (approx 10pm Ozzie time), and surprisingle had a decent 12 hour nap. Woke up nice and refreshed but had to wait for my cousin and aunty to travel from the countryside to pick me up from Phnom Penh.

Through the hectic traffic of Phnom Penh City, the motodop driver weaved us through to Psar Thmei from Boeung Kok I, Toul Kok. Upon our arrival, my aunty tried to bargain her way into hiring a "kong-bei" otherwise known as a three wheeler, to take me 11km out of the city to visit my grandmother. At first the driver hesitated saying that the drive was too far, and that it wasn't worth the trip, but after continual hecalling and bargaining, the driver finally gave in.

As we weaved through the city to my grandmothers place, I saw that the city had changed in the sense that there were less beggers (surprise surprise), and that many buildings have been either rebuilt or repainted so the city no longer looks like an extreme shithole like it was back in 2001. During the drive along the outskirts of the city, along the Mekong River, surprisingly there were no more berungs riding on their hired moto's to the red-zone, as officials had finally cracked down on this area.

Upon arrival my little cousins greeted me with excitement, and surprisingly they remembered me. Unfortunately the same could not be said for my grandmother, who is getting extremely old and frail now, with extremely poor eye sight, and continual health problems. During my short stay, I distributed some of the items I had brought back from Australia and was thanked with huge grins and smiles.

We left Phnom Penh at 3:00 for a two hour drive to Kampong Cham (my dad's home province). The main road to Kampong Cham has suffered from wear and tear, due to the heavy usage by both cars and heavy loaded trucks. We arrived at exactly 5:00 and quickly said hi to a few family members near the Japanese friendship Bridge (Speak Kizuna), and jetted off to my grandmothers house which was another 5 minutes down into the countryside.

Whilst travelling through the city and Kampong Cham, I was spotted a mile away. Everyone pretty much stopped what they were doing for at least a minute or two and just stared. Either at the fact that I was a foreigner being dinkied by a female local, or that fact that I am huge compared to them, heh heh heh.

For now goodbye and goodnight and I will keep everyone posted upon my travels to ancient ruins, and schools and such.

-allan-

Arrival

Hours before my flight schedule, I was trully excited and ecstatic that the day has finally arrived... I was finally jumping on a plane to escape reality. However as I was checking into the Airport and waiting for boarding, it suddenly felt weird that I was going away by myself and leaving my family and friends back home in Australia, the excitement just sort of died.

As I took my first step outside the plane, I expected a dense humid gust to overwelm me, like my previous trips to Cambodia, but instead I was greeted with a surprisingly fairly cool, semi warm breeze. The airport experience is like no other in the world, Airport officials continually keeps and eye out for Khmers living abroad, and target them like its a matter of life and death. They'll come up to you and ask if your Khmer and then once you say yes they'll be straight forward and ask for your passport, so they can assist you and scam $5US from you. However I was able to escape this fiasco and played dumb most of the way being quiet and just walking to the counter and nodding. So I was lucky this time around and got away scott free. The experience was yet again compromised with more frustration and waiting, as the officials at the customs counter were obviously not familiar with their new computer system.

The drive to my uncles house was an absolute bitch, with cars weaving in and out causing a major traffic jam. For the rest of the day I just had a quiet night to recover from the plane trip as I didn't any sleep on the plane. There isn't much else to write for my first day, I e-mailed a few of you guys when I arrived in Singapore, but I guess I will keep everyone posted in the near future. Hope everyones having a well deserved break, as I know I will be making the most of this trip and will try to travel around as much as I can. So for now Bye and Goodnight.

-allan-

P.S. Damn the cold shower was a struggle, as it's my first cold shower in 3 years haha.... ahaha

Last Day, Last Hot Shower, Last Chicken

Official Countdown [1 Day]

Wow has it been that long? Back in August I continued my countdown and kept it quiet, I constantly got msgs and questioned on what my countdown was leading to, and I would just respond with either holiday in general or finish exam period. The day has finally come, after waiting, waiting and more waiting the countdown has finally paid off. The checklist of things to do before I leave is almost complete, with the final one being have dinner with "The Boys". All my bags are pretty much packed and ready to be thrown on the plane.

Tomorrow morning I will enjoy my last hot shower, and a piece of scrumptious chicken. With all these bird flu outbreaks and people's paranoia, I have decided to lay off chicken and poultry whilst I'm overseas... Just in case. The hot showers I can leave without, but chicken arghhhhhhhhhhhh. The weather tends to get so humid over there, that once you take a cold shower, as soon as you dry off you start sweating again before you even put your clothes back on heh heh heh.

Well this post is coming to an end, because there's only so much to talk about Packing and preparing, isn't it exciting? But I wish everyone the best of there holiday and a Merry Christmas in advance. I will be back in Australia on the 25th, but everyone will most likely be having family Christmas gatherings or whatever. So yeh bye for now and will keep everyone posted on my blog.

-allan-

"Reflection"

25-Year old Van Nguyen will be sent to the gallows in exactly 2 weeks, despite continual battle and pleads by family and friends, the Australian Government and the general public.

Some may say Van deserves what his getting, as he totally knew the consequences of smuggling any kind of drugs throughout asia. At first I thought the same, if you know what you're getting into and you manage to get caught, you should be dealt the full blow. However after continual reflection and thought, I have come to the conclusion that no one deserves to die, especially at such a young age.

Out here in the west, murders, rapers, serial killers, stalkers, organised crime members and ring leaders are causing much more havoc and danger in society and all they get is a smack on the back and a few years in jail.

Like I said before, there is absolutely no justice in this world, as people are getting executed for petty crime, whilst serial killers, murders and so fourth are just getting thrown in jail for a few years.

A hard lesson in life is if you or someone has money problems, you should NOT go digging in for trouble and problems, as you may be gambling with your life, friends and family. Do the right thing go get an education or go get a steady job. In this day and age the educated will always succeed and do well in the long term. With these quick money schemes the amount may seem a lot in the short term, but where exactly is it going to get you in a few years time or 20 years time?

-allan-

The Final Countdown

Official Countdown [10 Days]

Well it's finally the "FINAL COUNTDOWN" only 10 more days till I fly... fly away. Man these last few day's have gone by so slowly, now I have absolutely nothing to occupy my time with so all I do is sit here and countdown the hours. Whereas before with exams I would only count down the days.

I don't really have much to say in this entry, but a simple message to all those sick fuck's in the world searching in search engines for "illegal sex, illegal sex images, illegal girls, underage girls, Yum-yum" and so fourth. go and take a look in the mirror at yourself and ask yourself what the fuck are you doing.

The reason why I know this is because my current Stat counter provides statistics of where people has foung my blog link from and such. Having been linked to my article via multiple search engines "Loss of Innocence" many sick minded mother fuckers have been roaming the net for details on the illegal sex trade. Usually one wouldn't just search such vague terms if they were trully doing a research. However searching such terms as stated above obviously refers to their own desirable needs and pleasures.

Well anyways I'm going to boot, and I'll post my final entry before I leave for Cambodia on either the 19th or 20th of November. For the time being please enjoy my almost complete photo album at http://droonsta.myphotoalbum.com/.

-allan-

Welcome! People of the World

Official Countdown [16 Days]

First off, I would like to send out a warm welcome all the blog readers from around the world. Thus far I've had an audience of readers from Canada, Mexico, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, USA, UK, Sweden, Cambodia, Croatia, Belgium, Qatar, Brazil, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Germany and of course the people from the land down under, Australia. I hope everyone enjoys their stay and I hope everyone looks forwarding to reading about my travels in Cambodia in November 2005.

Well, it's that time of the year again, when you're absolutely relieved that exams are finally over and out of the way. As I walked into my final exam today, I was extremely nervous and excited at the same time. Nervous and scared that I would fail yet another exam, and excited that it's my last blardy day... heh heh heh plus the bonus that it'll only be 2 weeks till I fly, fly away.

Chow and I studied long into the night, and had only took a so called "powernap" at 4:30am and to wake up at the sound of 10 alarm bells ringing off our mobile phones at 5:30, 5:45, 5:50... intervals. We got up and I did my last minute study, which I must say actually paid off this time, while Chow just immediately dozed off on the matress.

Well now that exams are over my mind is pretty much set on my trip overseas and nothing else. As I believe I deserve this break from everything in my life and also to visit immediate family. My grandparents are all currently very fragile and ill, heading into the extreme ages. With that said I would hope to visit them at least many more times, as I haven't had the luxury of having family in and about here in Australia.

With all that said, and as promised in my previous post that I would post a blog after my exams, I better get some shut-eyes now as I've been dozing off so often due to the lack of sleep.

-allan-